I really enjoyed the article! I think you make a really good case for your suggestions! May The Holy Spirit breath through the Church and inspire far holier people than us to pray through this subject and be lead to the Hopeful Mysteries as Almighty God desires them.
My motives behind hopeful are different from yours I think. Mine are definitely about "before the 1st joyful" so that would rule out your 5th just by definition, although I do think your 5th is absolutely stunning and a beautiful mystery. One might argue the 5th sorrowful captures this, but I dont think so, because the accent of your 5th hopeful is one of hope rather than sorrow. But it is chronologically after the 1st joyful, so I would exclude it.
Again, my motive also was particularly to vindicate aspects of tradition that I felt modernism ignores or rejects. I love and glory in my 4th hoepful. It is a feast day in the church's calendar that I truly love. It also has beautiful content for all children at school and enclosed religious to meditate upon our lady's life and behaviour in the temple. And also vocational discernment. Thinking about their futures.
Frank Duff actually suggested the Immaculate Conception. I went for "the birth of the immaculate Virgin" for a few reasons, one of which is a simple fact that while someone who is truly spiritual can have a contemplation on the theological truth of the Immaculate Conception. The reality is the immaculate conception involved the process of human generation between Joachim and Anne. In terms of imagery I felt 'the birth' was more appropriate and also paralleled the 3rd joyful.
I could write way more than this. I think the pregnant virgin is also an excellent choice, but the chaste espousals has to stay, doesnt it? That is truly important.
I am so glad that theologically we both see the importance of 1. It is a beautiful mystery and your article puts the core aspect of this well.
Thank you so much for replying to this article father! I feel so humbled that you took the time to do this. First of all I want to thank you, when I felt that I was ready to finally move on to pray the rosary daily I got your book to get started, and it's such a wonderful book that everyone wanting to pray the rosary, both beginners and veterans, should check out.
The first thing that called my attention about the set you proposed was the term "hopeful": in a sense it was really providential for me, personally. When I meditated on the theological virtues during the Angelus, Hope was the virtue that I had the most difficulty in grasping, and as I read more about it I was able to understand it in relation to the faculty of memory, the gift of knowledge, the transcendental of beauty, the sense of sight in contemplation and the Second Person of the Trinity. I really think the Hopeful Mysteries could also be called "The Beautiful Mysteries" too! I also read Frank Duff's writing about the rosary, and I agree that the rosary should be extended! As many mysteries as there can be.
I actually didn't know how to name some of them. When thinking of the Immaculate Conception, I remembered St. Maximilian Kolbe and his words about the Fatima apparition - and I like to think about "conception" as not only the conceiving in the womb but that which we conceive in our minds, and I try as hard as I can to hold onto that thought. The Chaste Espousals of Mary and Joseph needed to stay, for one I like to see St. Joseph included in a mystery of the rosary, and also this is a "mystery" to be contemplated so much today, it is so much needed in the modern world. "Can we live chaste lives today?" is such an important question.
I didn't know where to place The Expectation of Mary, since I chose it with the tradition of celebrating Mary under the advocation of Our Lady of Hope both in Advent and Holy Saturday (in Spain) in mind, but The Divine Adoption of Mankind was a good way to close it. I have to say, St. Teresa Benedicta of The Cross inspired me to select it as a mystery. I think her "science of the cross" really is the "science of hope", and she wrote a poem called "Juxta Crucem Tecum Stare!" that I like to say at the end of the rosary for this set of mysteries.
And I couldn't remove the first mystery at all! In fact it all seemed to flow from it. Thanks again father, I'm really happy that you read this. Please keep me in your prayers too!
I really enjoyed the article! I think you make a really good case for your suggestions! May The Holy Spirit breath through the Church and inspire far holier people than us to pray through this subject and be lead to the Hopeful Mysteries as Almighty God desires them.
My motives behind hopeful are different from yours I think. Mine are definitely about "before the 1st joyful" so that would rule out your 5th just by definition, although I do think your 5th is absolutely stunning and a beautiful mystery. One might argue the 5th sorrowful captures this, but I dont think so, because the accent of your 5th hopeful is one of hope rather than sorrow. But it is chronologically after the 1st joyful, so I would exclude it.
Again, my motive also was particularly to vindicate aspects of tradition that I felt modernism ignores or rejects. I love and glory in my 4th hoepful. It is a feast day in the church's calendar that I truly love. It also has beautiful content for all children at school and enclosed religious to meditate upon our lady's life and behaviour in the temple. And also vocational discernment. Thinking about their futures.
Frank Duff actually suggested the Immaculate Conception. I went for "the birth of the immaculate Virgin" for a few reasons, one of which is a simple fact that while someone who is truly spiritual can have a contemplation on the theological truth of the Immaculate Conception. The reality is the immaculate conception involved the process of human generation between Joachim and Anne. In terms of imagery I felt 'the birth' was more appropriate and also paralleled the 3rd joyful.
I could write way more than this. I think the pregnant virgin is also an excellent choice, but the chaste espousals has to stay, doesnt it? That is truly important.
I am so glad that theologically we both see the importance of 1. It is a beautiful mystery and your article puts the core aspect of this well.
God Bless Fr Mark Higgins
Thank you so much for replying to this article father! I feel so humbled that you took the time to do this. First of all I want to thank you, when I felt that I was ready to finally move on to pray the rosary daily I got your book to get started, and it's such a wonderful book that everyone wanting to pray the rosary, both beginners and veterans, should check out.
The first thing that called my attention about the set you proposed was the term "hopeful": in a sense it was really providential for me, personally. When I meditated on the theological virtues during the Angelus, Hope was the virtue that I had the most difficulty in grasping, and as I read more about it I was able to understand it in relation to the faculty of memory, the gift of knowledge, the transcendental of beauty, the sense of sight in contemplation and the Second Person of the Trinity. I really think the Hopeful Mysteries could also be called "The Beautiful Mysteries" too! I also read Frank Duff's writing about the rosary, and I agree that the rosary should be extended! As many mysteries as there can be.
I actually didn't know how to name some of them. When thinking of the Immaculate Conception, I remembered St. Maximilian Kolbe and his words about the Fatima apparition - and I like to think about "conception" as not only the conceiving in the womb but that which we conceive in our minds, and I try as hard as I can to hold onto that thought. The Chaste Espousals of Mary and Joseph needed to stay, for one I like to see St. Joseph included in a mystery of the rosary, and also this is a "mystery" to be contemplated so much today, it is so much needed in the modern world. "Can we live chaste lives today?" is such an important question.
I didn't know where to place The Expectation of Mary, since I chose it with the tradition of celebrating Mary under the advocation of Our Lady of Hope both in Advent and Holy Saturday (in Spain) in mind, but The Divine Adoption of Mankind was a good way to close it. I have to say, St. Teresa Benedicta of The Cross inspired me to select it as a mystery. I think her "science of the cross" really is the "science of hope", and she wrote a poem called "Juxta Crucem Tecum Stare!" that I like to say at the end of the rosary for this set of mysteries.
And I couldn't remove the first mystery at all! In fact it all seemed to flow from it. Thanks again father, I'm really happy that you read this. Please keep me in your prayers too!